Executive Summary

Last year I did my first carbon report spanning 2018 and 2019, and committed to doing a report each year after. The main goal is still to better understand my personal carbon footprint, and take action, both in the form of lifestyle changes and carbon offsets, to reduce it. You can read more about the inspiration for this assessment in my original 2018/209 write up here, and details for this year’s assessment can be found in the coming sections. Highlights include:

In 2020 my total footprint was roughly 27 tCO2E (tons of CO2 equivalent). This was way up from my 19.5 tCO2E average from 2018-2019, and can mainly be attributed to all the extra driving while living in a van!
Based on my footprint, my main actions in 2021 will be focusing on reducing my use of gasoline for transportation, and also offsetting my carbon from 2020 through reforestation projects via the @arbordayfoundation
Moving forward, I plan to continue to do a personal carbon assessment each year, and also fold in an assessment for my company, J Man U Can, so that both my personal impact and the company's is accounted for.
A link to the full analysis for the 2020 assessment can be found here.

Summary of total emissions for each emission category. All numbers in tCO2e.

Assessment Overview, Results, and Key Takeaways

As I did in my first assessment, I analyzed my carbon impact by breaking it up into four emission categories: food, secondary emissions from goods and services, housing, and transportation. An overview of how each category was assessed, results from each category, and key takeaways are as follows:

Food: For food, I estimated my impact by analyzing my diet and its impact on the environment. In 2020, I began eating beef again but in very small quantities (usually only once per week). Based on that change in diet, my footprint increased from 1.9 tCO2E to roughly 2.1 tCO2E. The main takeaway here is that an animal based diet with a focus on limited beef can be very footprint friendly, given that a vegetarian diet still has a footprint of 1.7 tCO2E and vegan only 1.5 tCO2E. While true that a vegan diet can render 25% less impact than an animal one with limited beef, as it relates to the entire average impact of an American (~20 tCO2E), this is only about a 2.5% reduction in footprint.
Secondary Emissions from Goods and Services: My estimated footprint for goods and services for 2020 ended up being 9.17 tCO2E with ~7 tCO2E of that coming from my van’s build and manufacture. It is clear that the manufacture of large industrial goods (such as large vehicles) has a tremendous impact on the environment. Even with my approach of spreading out my van’s impact over the 6 year period of the loan, 7 tCO2E per year is a whopping 26% of my already higher than average footprint. Moving forward it’s clear that every new large purchase should be made with sustainability in mind, leaning towards a preference for reuse.
Housing: Overall my housing energy costs were low at only 1.5 tCO2E for the whole year. The biggest takeaway here was the massive difference in grid footprints between California and Illinois, with Illinois’ grid having nearly 4.5x more carbon emissions per watt. It just goes to show how important it is to create clean power grids at the national level, so that those efficiencies and the sustainability of the grid can trickle down to all individuals using the grid for power.
Transportation: In 2020 my carbon footprint was dominated by transportation, with the 14.5 tCO2E accounting for over 50% of my total footprint. Interestingly enough, I only flew one round trip in 2020, but despite flights being the biggest driver of my transportation footprint in the past, this reduction did little to make up for all of the driving I did in 2020, which accounted for over 90% of my transportation footprint, and nearly 50% of my overall footprint. The case for less dependency on petroleum is ever apparent for me now, as if to say it wasn’t in the past!

Yearly carbon emission distribution across each emission category.

Action

Based on my footprint of nearly 27 tCO2E, my plan moving forward is to offset these emissions through Arbor Day Forestry Carbon Credits. At $20 a ton, I’ll plan to offset roughly $540 worth over the next year, or about $68 a month until the end of 2021. I understand there are many limitations to carbon offsets, and while not all projects result in the same impact ton for ton, I do believe in the power of reforestation, and trust Arbor Day’s reforestation program as a reputable way to make a difference when it comes to carbon sequestration.

Carbon offsets alone however are not enough. Looking at the US' 2030 target of ~9 tCO2E/person based on the Nationally Determined Contribution in the Paris Agreement, I still have a lot of work to hold up my end of the bargain! For 2021, I plan to aim for less transportation that relies on petroleum (bike powered baby!) and will continue to try to prioritize reusable goods over new goods, especially when it comes to a larger purchase. Over the next 10 years I'm pledging to continue to do my best to reduce my personal footprint, as well as advocate for bigger, more sustainable changes across the country when it comes to green house gas emissions and climate change. I challenge you to do the same!